Italian diners have left a scathing review after an ice cream parlour charged them €1 for an extra spoon to share their dessert in the latest row over restaurants in the country allegedly ripping people off.
A customer said she asked for a second spoon to share her tub of ice cream with her husband at the Gelateria Serafini in the town of Lavis in northern Italy.
The woman wrote in her TripAdvisor review: ‘I shared a €8 cup of ice cream, but I paid €9: I was charged an extra €1 as a service for asking for a second spoon.
‘I won’t come back again, but if you come by, bring one from home.’
This comes after a couple was charged €2 for an empty plate so their daughter could try the pasta at an Italian restaurant last month.
A customer said she asked for a second spoon to share her tub of ice cream with her husband at the Gelateria Serafini in the town of Lavis in northern Italy
The woman wrote in her TripAdvisor review: ‘I shared a €8 cup of ice cream, but I paid €9 (pictured): I was charged an extra €1 as a service for asking for a second spoon’
Italians mocked the restaurant for the unusual charge and even the regional governor condemned it – amid a row in the country over extra hidden prices.
Ida Germano, the owner of the Osteria del Cavolo in Finale Ligure, told The Times the charge was valid because more plates to clean meant ‘more work’ to do.
In another prices scandal, a couple who asked for an extra teaspoon so they could share a dessert were charged €1.50.
They were billed for the pleasure of using two teaspoons to eat the crema catalana they had at the pizzeria near Alba, in northern Piemonte.
It came as a posh bar at Italy’s exclusive Lake Como has sparked outrage after it was revealed it charges customers an extra €2 just to cut their sandwiches in half.
One disgruntled customer shared a photograph of a receipt online as proof of the baffling charge.
The printout from June 18 clearly shows that Bar Pace had charged them €2 for the privilege of cutting their fancy sarnie in two.
Diners at an Italian restaurant were shocked after waiters charged them €2 for an empty plate so their daughter could try the pasta. Pictured: The restaurant’s receipt
Ida Germano (pictured), the owner of the Osteria del Cavolo in Finale Ligure, said the charge was valid because more plates to clean meant ‘more work’ to do
The total pushed the already pricy €7.50 ‘toast vegetariano e patatine’ – or veggie toast and crisps – up to €9.50.
The owner of the bar, who has not been named, hit back in Italian media, saying that ‘additional requests have a cost’.
They explained: ‘If a customer asks me to make two portions of toast, I have to use two saucers, two napkins and go to the table using two hands.
‘It is true that the customer is always right, but it is equally true that additional requests have a cost.’
The customer, also unnamed, was reportedly at the bar in Gera Lario, a small town located on the northern shore of Lake Como, with his partner.
They ordered a fizzy drink, the sandwich to share, a water and a coffee, for a total cost of €15.70 (£13.52).
The TripAdvisor user said: ‘This has never happened to me in any of the places I have visited in the world.’
Since international travel returned to normality at the end of the global pandemic, several disgruntled holidaymakers have taken to the internet to express their shock at being presented with exorbitant bills in bars and restaurants in a number of European holiday destinations.
Several customers have slammed a cafe near Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome for being a ‘tourist trap,’ with one customer saying they were charged €53 for ‘two triangular toast bread sandwiches and a ham and mozzarella ciabatta’.
In June, one tourist took to Reddit to express their shock after being left with a bill of €360.80 (£310) for a light lunch on Greece’s island of Mykonos, at a beach-side restaurant called Eclipse.
The customer explained that their family had been looking for a good spot to sit and enjoy the sun when a waiter at beach-side restaurant Eclipse told them they could ‘use their cabanas or loungers provided we bought two drinks’.
The owner of the bar (pictured), who has not been named, hit back in Italian media, saying that ‘additional requests have a cost’
In June, one tourist took to Reddit to express their shock after being left with a bill of €360.80 (£310) for a light lunch on Greece’s island of Mykonos, at a beach-side restaurant called Eclipse (pictured)
The customer said they had asked for the prices and a menu, but that the waiter cleverly avoided their questions, telling them it was ‘cheap’.
The two parents ordered a beer and mojito each but were also pressured into ordering milkshakes for their children. They also had a Greek salad and Calamari.
To the customer’s shock, they said they were then handed a bill costing their four drinks at €78 (£67) and the calamari at €75 (£65). Being pestered for payment, they eventually gave the waiter their card.
But to even further dismay, the customer said they were charged even more.
‘When the bill came back I was appalled as the Calamari was €148 (£127), the milkshakes which we never wanted but were forced to order for our kids were €38 (£33) each and the salad and bread which we were told were free were €28 (£24) and €14.50 (£12) respectively,’ they said.
After telling the staff of his shock and anger at the payment, they said the staff started ‘grouping up and getting mad’.
They said the cashier then tore off the top part of the receipt containing the transaction details and the restaurant’s name and address.
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